Born in 1663, John Vaughan lived in the mediaeval manor house of Derllys, half a mile south of Merthyr Church, where his family attended services. He shared the same name as his father, a distinguished barrister, wealthy landowner and Mayor of Carmarthen. His mother Rachel was the daughter of Sir Henry Vaughan of Derwydd near Llandeilo. John grew up with his sisters Alice and Rachel and brothers Francis and Richard. It’s likely the boys attended Carmarthen Grammar School. Richard became a barrister like his father and MP for Carmarthen, while John took over the running of the estate. In October 1692 John was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Thomas of Meidrim. Elizabeth became a landowner in her own right as the sole heir to her father’s nearby estate at Nant Yr Hebog.

Derllys, sometimes known as Cwrt Derllys or Derllys Court, had been the home for hundreds of years of some of the leading families among the uchelwyr, or landed gentry of Carmarthenshire. The fifteenth-century, travelling bard Lewis Glyn Cothi praised the house in a poem:

Gorau llys gerlaw a gwydd

Ers nawoes yw’r Llys Newydd

Lle teyrn gerllaw Towy

Derllys is the best court, near the trees

The new court is nine times better

A court for a king near the (River) Towy.

John Vaughan inherited one of the richest estates in the county, containing 215 individual properties, which produced an annual income of £1,237, a fortune in its day. The old mansion has long been demolished and replaced, but we get an idea of its size through learning that in 1670 Derllys was taxed as a property with six hearths, or fireplaces. It was common for country squires in the 1600’s and 1700’s to spend their time hunting, drinking, gambling and in immoral behaviour. But John, a devout Christian, devoted his life and considerable wealth to helping others. He became a philanthropist, giving away large sums of money to good causes. As well as Merthyr, other churches benefited from his generosity, including St Mary’s, Llanllwch, which he helped to rebuild in 1712.

Site of the mediaeval mansion at Derllys. The present owner Mr Robert Walters holds a carved stone from the original building dated 1666 (the year of the Great Fire of London). The initials JV are likely to refer to John Vaughan's father, who had the same name as his son.

Derwydd, near Llandeilo, home of Rachel, John Vaughan's mother .

Nant yr Hebog, inherited by John Vaughan's wife Elizabeth.

John Vaughan and his work remain in the shadow of his famous daughter Bridget, who became Madam Bevan, the financier of Griffith Jones’ Circulating Schools. Another reason for John’s comparative obscurity is that so little has been written about him. One of the few available sources is a hand-written university thesis submitted by Mary Clement of Llanelli in 1940 and held by the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. She also mentioned him in her book ‘The SPCK (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge) and Wales 1699-1740’ published in 1954.

Dr Clement said, ‘Very little of the history of John Vaughan is available. There is not enough in any book to form a clear idea of his character. In spite of that, by studying the minutes of the SPCK and his correspondence with them we can see some characteristics and gain some idea of him as a man’. Dr Clement also gathered civic records and other indirect evidence about John and his activities.

An English clergyman the Revd. Thomas Bray and a group of friends formed the SPCK in 1698 after becoming concerned by what they saw as a growth in ‘vice and immorality', believing this was caused by ‘gross ignorance of the principles of the Christian religion’. The friends met at Lincoln’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court in London, where they decided to publish and distribute Christian literature and encourage Christian education at all levels. John Vaughan and his friend Sir John Philipps of Picton Castle in Pembrokeshire embraced these ideas enthusiastically and became pioneers of the SPCK in Wales.

John began to support charity schools throughout Carmarthenshire, including in Carmarthen, Llangadog, Laugharne and Llangynog. He gained the backing of clergy like the Revd. Thomas Thomas of Merthyr, who proposed that a school should be set up in every parish. Crucially, John provided funding from his own, deep pockets. As well as literacy, numeracy and religion, the schools taught skills essential in the wider world at that time such as farming, seamanship and domestic service. The SPCK’s aim as a charity was to ‘do good to both souls and bodies’. John became the Marcus Rashford of his day, making sure free meals were provided for poorer pupils. In Pembrey, for example, children at the SPCK school were given hot meals prepared in a public house five days a week.

John supported the SPCK in its aim to set up libraries in every parish, but he was unwilling that these should exist only for clergymen and teachers. He wrote that he desired that ‘the inhabitants of every parish may have the perusal of the books in the Welch (sic) libraries as well as the clergy and schoolmasters and more especially housekeepers, they giving sufficient pledges to return all the books they borrow without damage’. Dr Clement wrote, ‘When it is realised that the Public Libraries Act was not passed until 1850, it will be seen that John Vaughan must have been far in advance of his age’.

Above all, John campaigned for a renewal of religious life. He lobbied at least two Bishops of St Davids for more emphasis on ‘family devotion’, suggesting every home should have a children’s library. He proposed that ‘all parents thro’ the Kingdom, and especially those of estate and abilitie (sic), be exerted to bestow on their children a small library consisting of good, practical books, to the value of 3, 4 or 5 pounds, and be fixed in cases with locks and keys, like those for ye Carmarthen library’. He said the SPCK should suggest books suitable for young people.

According to Dr Clement, John became ‘the chief patron of Welsh books throughout South Wales and indeed, throughout the country as a whole’. He was responsible for distributing many thousands of books, including Bibles, as well as pamphlets and sermons, and became the ‘link between the SPCK in London and the Welsh people who benefited from its publications’. Dr Clement quoted the historian Thomas Shankland as saying of John, ‘Several Welsh translations and re-issues of the classics owe their publication to his patronage’. John also continued to support the Welsh language at a time when most of the gentry were becoming Anglicised. He argued the importance of making literature available in the language used by most of the population.

Archdeacon Tenison, a leading clergyman, made a surprising discovery when he visited Merthyr in 1710. He found that of the sixty communicants at Easter, thirty could read Welsh. Dr Clement said, ‘There was no school there at the time according to the Churchwardens’ Presentments, yet Welsh Bibles, Common Prayer books and catechisms were distributed among the people, confirming the statement that Welsh was read. Who then taught this substantial proportion of poor people to read in their own tongue?’ The answer seems to be that so-called ‘peasant schools’ were held in the houses of ordinary people. They were voluntary and entirely unorganised. A contemporary observer Dr Erasmus Davies wrote, ‘There are many even of the common people, who gladly make the best use of the knowledge they have gained and take the pains privately by reading or discoursing to instruct one another in their houses. And it is not uncommon to see servants and shepherds as they have an opportunity, strive to do these good offices to each other. It is by this means that most of them do attain the knowledge of reading and writing in their native language’.

John Vaughan became a prominent social reformer. Concerned about unemployment, he called in 1711 for an Act of Parliament empowering justices of the peace throughout Wales to introduce a tax ‘to get the poor and vagabonds to work’. He said some of the tax should be used to teach poor children in the newly established workhouses to ‘read and say the catechism’. John was also an early advocate for prison reform, pleading for more privacy for prisoners and the distribution of books in jails throughout Carmarthenshire.

John played an important role in civic life. He was Mayor of Carmarthen in 1710-11 and a member of the Borough Council from 1707 until his death. John was made Justice of the Peace for Carmarthen in 1717. He and Elizabeth had four children, Richard, Arabella, Elizabeth and Bridget. His wife Elizabeth died in 1721 and was buried in Merthyr Church. John died on November 16th 1722, a date that’s described as being in the ‘year of the white pox’. He was buried in Llanllwch, where a wall memorial still in place gives an insight into his life and legacy.

Near this place lieth the Body of John Vaughan of Court-Derlis Esq

who in his Life-time, contributed largely towards

The rebuilding of this Chappel, and industriously

Promoted the same charitable Disposition in others.

He has by his last Will, devised the annual Payments

of four pounds for the clothing of poor Scholars

taught at the Charity-School erected on ye Common

in the parish of Langunoch,

Twenty Shillings for the buying of Bibles

for their use,

Forty Shillings for such Minister as shall officiate

in this Chappel,

And ten Shillings towards repairing the Same

for ever.

He was happily distinguished with the character

of being a devout Christian, a tender Husband,

an indulgent Father, a Sincere Friend, an Hospitable

Neighbour, and an Excellent Magistrate.

He lived, Beloved and dyed, Lamented.

November 16th 1722

In the 60th year of his Age.

John’s daughter Arabella, who married Thomas Williams, son of Sir Ryce Williams of the Edwinsford (Rhydodyn) estate, inherited Derllys when her uncle Richard, the barrister, died in 1724. When Arabella died in 1728, aged 32, Thomas commissioned a marble memorial, which may still be found on the wall to the north of the altar in Merthyr Church. The memorial says Arabella was ‘universally esteemed for her sweetness of temper, together with an unfeigned piety and all those virtues and graces which are at once the ornament and support of the social life’. John’s son Richard died in 1716 and is buried in Llanllwch.

John’s bequests continued for many years after his death, his charity ceasing to exist as recently as 2011. John Vaughan Primary School in Llangynog remained open until 2009. In the eighteenth-century, John’s daughter Bridget carried on her father’s work as an educationalist and public benefactor. She married, in Merthyr Church, Arthur Bevan, another barrister, who became both a judge and MP for Carmarthen. As Madam Bevan, Bridget became the financier of Griffith Jones’ Circulating Schools movement. She used wealth inherited from her father to fund 6,321 schools, which gave 314,475 children and adults the means to read and write, making Wales one of the most literate nations in Europe.

It is ironic that the pioneering work of John Vaughan of Derllys in educational, religious and social reform has been obscured by the success and fame of his own daughter. On the tercentenary of John’s passing he deserves to be recognised as an historic figure in his own right. Perhaps the ringing of the Merthyr bell will help us remember the groundbreaking work of this spiritual and generous man who dedicated his life to bringing education within the reach of ordinary people.

Copyright: Church in Wales 2022.

Madam Bridget Bevan, John Vaughan's daughter, who continued her father's work by funding the Circulating Schools movement. Picture courtesy of Carmarthenshire Museum.

Derllys in 2022.